We knew we were up against some huge sales numbers for last August so it came as no surprise that our Lake Norman home sales in August ended up 14% below August 2018’s. On the plus side our August sales were 9% higher than last month’s. August was the 3rd consecutive month that our Lake Norman home sales fell below last year’s. After a great start to 2019 we have definitely experienced a softening of our housing market. We are now just 2 sales higher than the first 8 months of 2018. My numbers below should provide some deeper insight into where we are headed as well as details regarding this month’s sales.

Here are what I feel to be the biggest takeaways from August’s Lake Norman real estate sales data:

September in Lake Norman brings cooler weather and our trees just begin turning into our fall colors. With so many deciduous hardwood trees hugging our gorgeous shoreline, when the colors do peak it is truly stunning. Official “leaf peepers” head up the mountains towards the end of October where the colors peak earlier than they do here. But, honestly, all you have to do is drive or boat around our 520 miles of shoreline or neighborhoods to see gorgeous colors from bright red to all shades of yellow and orange. Once gone, we have our pine trees to keep us going until spring.

I would love to use one of your favorite photos depicting life here in Lake Norman. (Optimum size is a landscape photo about 2MB or about 1600 x 1200 pixels). I will give a $25 Gas Card to anyone who provides a photo that I use as one of my monthly calendars. If you’d like to submit a photo or an idea for a future calendar, please send it to…diane@dianeaurit.com

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So, despite pretty strong under contract and pending sales on last month’s market report, our Lake Norman home sales in July were not only 7% below July 2018’s but they were also 16.9% below last month’s. July was the second month in a row that our Lake Norman home sales were below last year’s. After a great start to 2019 we are definitely experiencing a softening of our housing market. Despite these drops, we are still 2.8% higher for the first 7 months of 2019 compared to 2018. My numbers below should provide some deeper insight into where we are headed as well as details regarding this month’s sales.

Here are what I feel to be the biggest takeaways from July’s Lake Norman real estate sales data:

*Compiled from the Carolina Multiple Listing Service’s data. Note that the numbers in this chart are generated by a technology expert I hired and not by me. The mapped perimeter of our Lake Norman area that he used for this chart’s numbers is slightly different from mine.

Lake Norman’s overall real estate market in the 2nd quarter of this year continued our strong pace that began in January, (With the exception of June.) However, there were some fascinating sub-trends within price-ranges in the past 3 months as you can see in above chart. By far the best way to truly understand our hot and cold niches is by analyzing our single family home sales by price-rangewhich is why I create this chart each quarter.

North Carolina beaches are a popular get-a-way for many of us who call Lake Norman home. I took this photo in Wrightsville Beach which includes the pier at the Oceanic restaurant the year before last September’s hurricane Florence which did major damage to this hot spot destination. But, it has reopened and is better than ever! Check out the video on their home page: Oceanic restaurant.

Coming from California, what struck me most about our North Carolina beaches was that the water gets very warm in the summer and looks more like the crystal clear waters of the Florida. They are also full of surfers as you can see above.

I would love to use one of your favorite photos depicting life here in Lake Norman. (Optimum size is a landscape photo about 2MB or about 1600 x 1200 pixels). I will give a $25 Gas Card to anyone who provides a photo that I use as one of my monthly calendars. If you’d like to submit a photo or an idea for a future calendar, please send it to…diane@dianeaurit.com

To receive all of my updates about Lake Norman Real Estate, subscribe here

So, our lower pending sales numbers in Lake Norman last month did, in fact, result in a decline in closed sales in June, posting a 12% drop from June 2018’s and a 6.3% decline compared to last month’s. This was the first month in 2019 that our Lake Norman home sales were below last year’s. Despite this modest drop we are still 4.4% higher for the first 6 months of 2019 compared to 2018. My numbers below should provide some deeper insight into where we are headed as well as details regarding this month’s sales.

Here are what I feel to be the biggest takeaways from June’s Lake Norman real estate sales data:

Wow, we have had a lot of rain this weekend and more is on the way! I just wanted to give you all a heads up that Lake Norman is officially at “full pond”. I drove around and the water is even topping over a few walkways out to docks. It is quite beautiful! Here is the update from Duke Energy. Remember that we have the Cowan’s Ford Dam mentioned below so the water will spill down to Mountain Island Lake where there may be some flooding.

Our Lake Norman’s real estate market posted record sales again in May with an impressive 12% gain over May 2018 and a 27% increase over last month’s. Wow! The first five months of 2019 stand out not only for their 9.3% total increase over 2018 but also for their consistency. Each month exceeded last year’s and also increased over the prior month as well. Consistency like this is very rare here in Lake Norman. It is even more interesting considering that this follows on the heels of a very a rough end to 2018. My numbers below should provide some deeper insight into where we are headed as well as details regarding this month’s sales.

Here are what I feel to be the biggest takeaways from May’s Lake Norman real estate sales data:

Lake Norman’s 1st Quarter 2019 Home Sales By Price Range

*Compiled from the Carolina Multiple Listing Service’s data. Note that the numbers in this chart are generated by a technology expert I hired and not by me. The mapped perimeter of our Lake Norman area that he used for this chart’s numbers is slightly different from mine.

Lake Norman’s overall real estate market in the first quarter of this year experienced a solid upswing after a very weak 4th quarter. However, there were some rather dramatic and inexplicable sub-trends within price-range groups both up and down within our market these past 3 months. These will be quite evident as you study the chart above. The best way to understand our hot and cold niches is by analyzing our sales by price-range which is why I create this chart each quarter.

Lake Norman’s low property taxes are one of the attractions for home buyers considering a relocation to our beautiful area. However, because Lake Norman falls in 4 different counties and ten towns for prospective home buyers it can be a bit of a challenge trying to get a sense of what their property taxes will be in any given location.

A special note! I just updated the numbers below to our 2018 tax rates. All properties were just reassessed for 2019 as they are every 8 years in North Carolina. The last reassessment was 2011 and the next will be 2027. The new assessed values are just coming out and some properties have risen more than others so make sure to find out the new assessed value of a property of interest to you! These new assessed values will be used in our upcoming 2018-2019 tax bills.

Below are links to all of the county website pages that provide all of the information you will need. In addition, here are a few helpful hints: Continue reading →

Lake Norman experienced a dramatic slowdown in our 4th quarter but that doesn’t mean there weren’t “hot” niches. The best way to understand our hot and cold niches is by analyzing our sales by price range which is why I create this chart each quarter.

If you are a home buyer or seller in the Lake Norman area it matters most what is happening in YOUR price-range. Yes, it is important to know about the global, national, and Charlotte area economy and real estate market but real estate is hyper-local so it is most meaningful for you to learn about the Lake Norman real estate market and within that, your specific niche. For instance, if you are looking to buy or sell in the $900,000 price range, you are going to have an entirely different experience than someone in the $800,000’s. And, if you considering a broader range of prices, this chart can help you develop a more effective strategy by narrowing your search based upon actual strengths and weaknesses within our Lake Norman price ranges.

The single most important number in this chart is the last column which provides that month’s of supply for each price range. Keeping in mind that economists use 6-months supply as a balanced market and anything below that as a seller’s market and above 6 months as a buyer’s market, you can quickly determine this past quarter’s strengths and weaknesses. Overall, at 5.77 months of supply of active listings, Lake Norman ended the year in a balanced market.

Lake Norman’s 4th Quarter 2018 Home Sales By Price Range

*Compiled from the Carolina Multiple Listing Service’s data. Note that the numbers in this chart are generated by a technology expert I hired and not by me. The mapped perimeter of our Lake Norman area that he used for this chart’s numbers is slightly different from mine.

In November I launched a new feature on my Lake Norman Real Estate site. I now have a real-time automatically updated graph of the number of active listings and homes sold in all of Lake Norman by month for the past three years. These easy to read graphs provide simple but great insight into today’s trends in an historical context. To get the latest number just click on Lake Norman Market Trends. .

Here are this month’s graphs:

*Note that the sales numbers aren’t updated until the 20th of each month.

Above is the graph of single family homes sold in Lake Norman for the past 6 months. You can clearly see our record-breaking months from May – August and then our nose dive in September with a slight uptick in October, down in November and December. I discussed this in detail in the Lake Norman Real Estate Market Report December 2018.

Above is the active listing graph. As you can see our inventory of active listings was significantly lower from June – September compared to prior years and as of today are actually about even with the past 2 Decembers. Keep in mind that those years we also had very low inventory of homes for sale!

Duke Energy just released the warning below with an update and caution due to yet another storm that arrived today. Due to our unusually high amounts of rain and snow, our Lake Norman water levels have been unusually high this past month. 100′ is full pond so at 98.6 we have some wiggle room but based upon the Duke Energy warning below, we can expect increasing lake water levels for the next few days at least. To get an idea of what it looks like when Lake Norman is a “full pond” I took this photo a few years ago when it was at full pond and as you can see even the dock is slightly under water!